Stephen A. Smith storms off of NewsNation Town Hall debate

It isn’t often that Stephen A. Smith is willing to walk away from a microphone.

Only that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday night, as the ESPN star stormed off the stage of a NewsNation Town Hall during a heated discussion regarding the government shutdown.

Of course, Smith didn’t leave without getting in a parting shot.

Smith’s departure came a little more than one hour into the debate, which was hosted by Chris Cuomo and featured Congress members Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Ro Khanna (D-Pennsylvania), and Madeleine Dean (D-Pennsylvania). After an argument that broke out following an air traffic controller in the audience expressing concern regarding the ongoing shutdown, the First Take star made it clear he had heard enough.

“We’re listening to this kind of stuff while a young man walked up to the microphone and said that he had to leave here to go and work on DoorDash to help pay for his daughter’s tuition,” Smith said. “Meanwhile, everybody up here getting paid, but he ain’t. It’s this kind of stuff right here. That’s how you know — and I’m not accusing any of you directly or personally a feeling this way; I’m just talking about the apparatus that is Washington, the nation’s capital. This is why you have so many Americans — excuse my language — so pissed off at Washington. Because somehow, someway, you get to have these conversations, engage in specific elements of it to talk about what we need to do to get thing better.”

“Our debt is $37.8 trillion,” he continued. “Somehow, someway, the taxpayers been paying this, been throwing money — cause we all look at our check and it has been going to the government and somehow, someway you are supposed to be doing something constructive and productive enough to make sure that we don’t have that kind of deficit. It isn’t happening.”

“A government shutdown is going on right now. A man had to work on DoorDash when he’s really an air traffic controller that we applauded and we are up here talking about how much some money is going to cost, and the only person that don’t have a check coming is him. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to take a break.”

From there, Smith stood up and walked off the set, although he did ultimately return a few minutes later.

While the former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist has publicly flirted with the idea of a 2028 presidential run for the better of the past year, he’s downplayed such aspirations in recent months. Still, he’s also left the door open for a potential political career, which it’s hard not to think about during viral moments like this one.